At the turn of the 20th century, the fight for women to get the vote was gaining momentum across the U.S. Washington, California and Idaho had passed the vote for women by 1911. By 1912, Oregon was the only state in the Pacific Northwest where women did not have the right to vote.

One of the many motivations behind the women’s suffrage movement was the regulation of public health and safety.

In the summer of 1912, Oregon social worker Caroline Gleason went undercover to investigate working conditions for women. She gathered information from more than 8,000 women across 25 cities for her report.

Gleason found that women had to work long hours in noisy and dangerous environments for small fractions of what their male counterparts were making. Some women earned as little as 45 cents a day.

In November 1912, women won the right to vote in Oregon. Shortly thereafter, Gleason worked to help create the first minimum wage law in the country.

To learn more about the women’s suffrage movement in Oregon, watch the Oregon Experience documentary “The Suffragists.”